“Rare to Go” is an album story of a working band through songs recorded. It tracks through both careful and casual work done in the studio, recording some hi-res multitrack, some session rehearsals recorded to a simple pair of mics in the room, as well as stage performances. The last song is written and played on ukelele.

It gives you the up close feel for what it’s like to work with fellow musicians on getting it right. The songs are all stories in themselves…Download it for 50% off. Unlimited streaming with purchase.

Plays on any software player or smartphone as an MQA master. Sounds better than CD on any player with or without MQA decoding — you’ll be surprised.

I’m being featured as Audioengine’s independent artist this month (May!).

Help yourself to the free song download of mine they are offering.

If you are looking for computer audio or Bluetooth active wireless speakers, the Audioengine HD3’s just received a 2018 Editor’s Choice from PCMag. Lots of high quality and good sounding wired and wireless solutions have been coming from Audioengineusa.com for many years now. If you’re looking, check them out too.

Happy Earth Day 2018. It’s the 20-yr. anniversary of my “Blue Planet” release on disc. I am giving it to you free today 4-22-2018 as an MQA master you can play on any player or smartphone. You can download the 5-tracks free or just stream them here:

I resisted CD when it was new and media-ized as the best and cleanest sounding thing. It sounded like it was in a straight jacket to me. I didn’t think that was clean. I thought it was chopped up and edgy. I liked vinyl and cassette. A lot. I never replaced my LP collection which was in the thousands with CDs. I bought CDs here and there to listen to stuff in the car but all the good stuff stayed in crates in various places.

Fast-Slow Forward 30 years (I kid you not) and I get to hear MQA with 16/44.1 CD Masters. Holy Shit. Finally something that sounds good in good old 16/44.1 Redbook. There are no hi-res masters for these (and millions of others), there are only CD masters. They sounded ok and forgivable when they were made but MQA let out the angels that were being kept inside.

I could go on and on with technical garbledy gook about filters and time smearing and, no, not rearing children, but other stuff but I won’t. I’ll stop with the angels thing. It’s a new moon, all is well.

Listen to a free MQA CD Master song download I have. Get it in the original FLAC format (use the dropdown option where it might say MP3 and change to FLAC) or any other lossless format Bandcamp offers (ALAC, AIF, WAV).

This song was recorded as an acoustic trio, with me on guitar, Scott Beynon on electric bass and Ken Owen on drums. My New Orleans bouzouki hellacious singer friend Beth dubbed that kind of ensemble Heavy Wood. Yes it was and was my best shot at my Tonight’s The Night sound. Recorded to DSD originally but only mastered for CD on the “Rare To Go” disc and then encoded as MQA.

You can play it on any digital audio player you have including your phone or tablet or computer. If you have an MQA DAC, or BlueOS or other player in your setup it will decode and sound even better but I’m hoping you listen to it either way.

Aloha to all.
~ DE

PS – the photo I took on the CD cover is of the 2 largest mountains on the planet, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. One is the largest mountain mass of any single mountain (more cubic meters, bigger than the entire Cascade or Sierra Nevada ranges), the other is the tallest rising from the ocean floor where it begins, far beyond Everest and the rest.

Spring is still working above the equator, gotta be thankful there. Along with new budding leaves and flowers the interest in MQA as a great way to deliver CD quallity and hi-res PCM to ears via downloads or streaming or CDs continues to grow as well.

Right now you can try a pristine acoustic recording originally mastered as native DSD, and since converted to DXD and encoded as MQA for downloads. It plays on any music player!

If you have an MQA decoder it can unfold the hi-res to 24/352.8kHz. The original master was encoded for MQA by MQA Ltd. as FLAC. The audio files are small and download fast.

Between now and the New Year (yes it will be 2018…) any full album you purchase from my pages for MQA masters *or* DSD masters will be acknowledged with a big MAHALO email from me containing a simple way for you to download any OTHER album of mine you want.

You can mix and match DSD and MQA all you have to do is reply to the thank you email I’ll send after your purchase and tell me which album you want to download for free.

You buy one or more with a download order, and I’ll send you a code/link to get one of your choice! Any format, any resolution, you decide.

Easy peasy. You *won’t* have to volunteer your maiden middle name, the 2nd, 4th, and 9th digits of your Social Security Number, your Bitcoin wallet password, or your plans for the holiday season. Just tell me which album!

Here are the links to purchase from to get a free album.

For MQA Masters (stereo only) in all resolutions (16/44 to 24/352.8) use this link:

As the year winds down you may be wandering, careening, catapulting, waltzing, wistfully walking, twist and shouting, meditating, mirroring, toe stepping, or broad jumping towards the great unknown in 2018…

I hope some music helps ease the transition and helps make it enjoyable for you and those surrounding you.

Be well – thank you for all the continued huge welcome and aloha you have shown me and my music through the year. Send this email or post to anyone you think might want to hear some.

With Aloha! Have some happy holidays!

– DE

PS… Some are asking me where I got that photo of the Golden Gate. I got it from seat 37J (if I remember that right)

PS2 (remember those? if you do you are probably nearly as old as me)………..If you too also wondering how the hell you might play *both* DSD *and* MQA audio files through a single setup (ideally one that can be mobile with battery and all the right quality and support for things like headphone amplification and matched impedances, and any other details that make it easier to just listen to well recorded digital music *INCLUDING* streaming MQA such as from TIDAL)…. then you may have to look no further.

Witness the new release of the iFI-audio USB DAC and headphone amp, the Nano iDSD BL (for Black Label). I saw it onsale at Amazon yesterday for $199…..

The small Nano needs a PC/MAC computer or smartphone connected to it (ie, it’s not a player just a DAC).

The new release of the ifi-audio.com USB DAC product Nano iDSD BL (Black Label) is so impressive I can’t do it justice here without writing a treatise.

Suffice to say this small gem of a product provides anyone (at a great price for everyone) with a solution to any and all types of high quality digital recordings, whether they be downloaded, ripped or streaming from popular sites like TIDAL, Spotify or Apple Music.

I’ve had and used an original Nano iDSD product from iFI for several years now. It’s been upgraded several times and the latest incarnation known as Black Label now supports MQA!

It’s retailing in the US on Amazon right now for $199 as well as other outlets.

Connects to your iPhone or Android to play music including STREAMING without using the phone battery to operate

Will stream MQA from places offering it like TIDAL today and many more tomorrow

Includes the heralded iFI iPurifier as a built-in protection against interference and noise on the USB connection

Supports S-balanced headphones with a separate output and lots of power

Provides headphone amplification giving you plenty of volume headroom on smartphone use and supports low to high impedance headphone ranges

Uses an analog volume control (dial) for the highest level of sound quality and convenience

Provides easy LED color indicators identifying the exact type of music (PCM, DSD, MQA) being played and its bit rate.

There are no doubt many more reasons this could be a very good affordable solution both at home via computer, with laptop, or with a smartphone to gain a future proof approach to high quality recording playback.

Take a look at their website and documents to read more about the Nano iDSD BL!